Menu Monday- Chicken Fried Deer Steak and Coconut Rum Balls

So there are some deer steaks in the freezer that are begging for a destiny....

I found the perfect future end for these guys HERE. 

 

Chicken Fried Deer Steak

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy With Onions

Peas and Carrots

Steam several small butter gold potatoes in microwave while preparing steaks and gravy.

I sprinkled a little Lemon Pepper and Season Salt on both sides of the steaks, dredged in flour, coated in egg, dredged again in flour and pan (iron skillet) fried until golden brown. Place steaks in oven on warm until gravy is ready.

Saute a thinly sliced onion in butter until translucent with browned edges. Set aside.

Add two tablespoons of the oil from frying steaks to two tablespoons of flour, whisk. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add milk about a cup. whisk. Add more milk a little at a time until gravy is formed. whisk. simmer for two minutes. Add sauteed onion. 

Mash potatoes (butter golds) with salt, pepper,butter and sour cream. 

Heat up some peas and carrots. I prefer frozen but to be nice to my hubby I heated the mushy canned stuff:) For some reason, he likes canned peas... 

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I am also looking forward to grilling some Venison Kabobs! Garlic, Rosemary, Lemon......good stuff!

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 And to remind you of warmer weather, how about some coconut??

Coconut Rum Balls

1 box vanilla wafers (crumbs)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup coconut
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup coconut rum
1/4 cup white corn syrup
1/2 tsp coconut extract
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

mix dry. add wet. add chips and pecans. form into balls. I use a cookie scoop, it just makes them more uniform. coat with more confectioners sugar. These are best after a chill out in the fridge over night.

Pace yourself...you are going to want to eat more than one!
 

 Enjoy

 

Tips on Teaching Toddlers/Preschool age children

When teaching my little ones the ABC's I  found that repetition is the best approach. My daughters loved
The Letter Factory because it is funny and very 'animated'. The others follow right along. They even have math videos. These have been around a long while and I realize that there are new fangle-dangled learning toys out there. My kids have tried most of them but really loved the videos the most.

You can order the whole beginning set from Amazon here.

We also did simple workbooks from the dollar stores and Walmart. I found that with my children the books with colorful pages got the best response. Kumon workbooks are awesome. Every night my oldest daughter went over the alphabet and numbers to twenty with flash cards. Sounds boring and repetitive, right? Well, that is just what we did instead of reading bedtime stories because we read stories all through the day. She was still sleeping with us and I had to find something to help her relax enough to go to sleep and I wanted to overachieve..don't judge- we all do it with our first borns:) Anyway, we did the flash cards each night, stories and poems during the day, and colored shapes in between.

I of course, didn't do the flash cards at night with the second daughter because...well, I wanted my bed and worked a little harder on teaching her to sleep in her own bed. But she is doing well. She didn't know all her letters and numbers at fifteen months but she did by eighteen months. So, no harm done.

I hope this helps a little. I'll go into more detail next week.

~Mary

Web Search Wednesday - Valentines

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Here are a few cute ideas to share with your loved ones!

Martha Stewart

Heart Hot Cocoa

Lovely Raspberry Layer Cake

Lava Cake

 

 

 

All from Delish.com

Chocolate body paint

Baked

Lulee's Third Birthday

Bucky the Marshmallow Pop

Awesome Pumpkin Blondies

  

Rustic Apple Tart Baked in Pyrex Bowl

Mr. Turkey Cupcakes

Mint M&M hot cocoa

Raspberry filled Cupcakes with White Chocolate Raspberry Frosting

Fondant and Gum Paste Baby

Introduction

Hi. My name is Mary. I am most productive in chaos. Just so you know...
My husband is the best man I know. He makes his family feel protected, loved and secure. I don't think you could ask for any better than that!

My youngest daughter is a silly, tantrum throwing, kiss giving-stinker..and and when she gets angry, her little face scrunches up like she is trying to lay an egg=)

My oldest daughter is a sensitive, creative, smart, selfless sweetheart and we probably understand each other more than is normal for mother and daughter. I only hope it continues through the teenage years.

Our home holds a lot of memories for us. We built most all of it with our own hands. My car is a Subaru  something I said I'd never drive unless is was something like this. 'I'm not the wagon type!' I often whined.

But, here we are nine years into marriage, two kids, a wagon and a mortgage we do not in the least- feel burdened by. In fact, we are proud of each year, each child, the milk and mud stained wagon and our undecorated(still, after living here for over a year now) house full of toys and foot traffic. It is our life and we love it.

 Baking is my newest obsession. I am teaching my three year old at home until she starts kindergarten just as I did with her big sister. So for now, I am baking, teaching, chauffeuring, crafting, cooking, cleaning (or should be cleaning, as opposed to typing)...you know-- everyday mom stuff...But as busy as being a mom is, I need some kinda creative madness to drown myself in regularly to stay sane.


That's where you come in....I'll be sharing my madness with you. Please feel free to comment as comments encourage me to keep looking for new inspiration.

Through this blog, I'd like to share some of my inspiration in food and crafts as well as some of the tricks I've learned teaching my kids at home until kindergarten, budget shopping and sneaking healthy fruits and veggies into the occasional piece of cake.

I plan to organize my hodge-podge something like this:

Menu Monday - A meal of the week
Baked Tuesday - Something I have baked and or want to market
Web Inspiration Wednesday - Searching the web for awesome decorating ideas
Thinking on Thursday - Teaching  a preschool age child
Food Friday - More food, what else?

Here are a few pictures of my latest creation...actually my first attempt at Fondant sculpting..

There are several things I will do differently next time...but, I think he is still cute.